Jack 2.9 Now Available - The 'Interface' Update

Date 2012/1/22 17:40:21 | Topic: Software News

Hello, the next release of Jack is finally available for download on OS4Depot or via the Jack website.

http://jackforamigaos.wordpress.com
http://www.os4depot.net

The major change in this version is the introduction of a new interface, the old commodity and calendar window have been consolidated into a one interface.
You can now switch between the Calendar (see note below) or the Weather within this interface.

I love my keyboard shortcuts and have added a few funky ones which are available when the main interface is open. The most useful of these is accessed by pressing F... give it a try! Or spoil the surpise and read below. =p

I hope you enjoy this release of Jack, I hope I have fixed the majority of bugs reported. Any feedback or error reports is welcome via the usual channels. If something is broken and you don't tell me then it won't get fixed unless I am find it myself so please please be pro-active!

In the next release due sometime Mid-February I plan to improve the Screen Capture feature so you can crop area of the screen first before entering the image editor. At the moment I am also playing around with a thumb nail viewer to compliment the full-screen mode, I already have it working so that images are loaded and displayed asynchronously without blocking the interface. I am quite happy to share that part of the code with Tuxedo if he wants to add into LoView or explain the mechanism.

Anyways rant over with, enjoy!

MAJOR FIX:
This release fixes problems non-English users have experienced with opening Jack. If Jack has trouble understanding a locale and language setting the interface will open up with the Calendar functionality disabled and show the weather instead.

Download/Installation instructions:

* Existing Users (Available once Jack has left OS4Depot's Upload Queue)

Simply start your current version of Jack as normal and when prompted click the confirmation button to proceed with the download.
Open the Installation Drawer and click on the Install Jack icon - after that simply select the location where you already have Jack installed and the installation is complete.

* New Users - Visit OS4Depot and type Jack in the search box. Or use this link: http://os4depot.net/index.php?functio ... tility/workbench/jack.lha

Make sure the latest version is shown on screen before downloading.
Installation is simple, just press the Install Jack icon and select a location where you would like Jack to be installed. Jack will now appear on your Dockbar.

Please submit all bug reports, suggestions and feedback on: http://bugs.os4depot.net/

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Changes since 2.8: ( The uber-long list)

* New funky interface consolidating the features of the previous Commodity and
Calendar windows into one interface. Also the interface is now opened up in a
truly transparent window.

* Locale: The program will no longer hang on start-up to users whose primarily
locale is not set as English. However it comes at a small price, the user
cannot enter Calendar mode in this version instead the Weather for your location
is always shown.

* Fonts: All fonts are now Anti-aliased.

* Calendar: Funky 'Hidden' keys added.
Lets start with the most useful, time-saving shortcut!
Pressing F, if Filer is installed, will open TWO instances of Filer
side-by-side!
Pressing D, if DOpus is installed, will open up Directory Opus for those
who resist change.
Pressing N, if Notepad is installed, will open up Notepad.
Press TAB and type in a URL to open site/address in your browser.
Press S to open up a Shell window
Regular keys:
Press W to toggle between Weather and Calendar
Press C to open configuration
Press I for program and system information
Press J for help / website

* Corrections in Configuration Editor on Save, sometimes your location wasn't
saved, now fixed.

* Calendar: Traversing through months is quicker.

* Weather: Graphics are available for Daytime and Night-time.

* Weather: Jack will automatically update the Weather every hour.

* Calendar: OUTSTANDING BUG: The Reset to current month button does not work
as planned. If you notice the days are incorrect either restart Jack or move
forward one month and back again using the arrows and then press Reset.

* GetVideo, Rexx script now included in distribution, thanks to Thematic for
spotting that it was missing.

* WordNet: Fixed excessive HDD access.

* Google Currency: Extended GUI Toolkit into this module.

* Calculator: Extended GUI Toolkit into this module.

* Calculator: Now handles decimal numbers by using a third-party Eval tool,
installed along with Jack.

* Calendar: You can now drag either a drawer containing images OR a file to
be actioned to just one single drag and drop area. Top left icon.

* Calendar: Drag n Drop area. Please note ALTHOUGH you can drag and drop
webpages, if you have Odyssey set up as your default web browser through
OpenURL or you select Odyssey from the URL-Window - the current 1.9 version
does not correctly identify the path to the file.

* Calendar: Drag n Drop area. Squashed a bug, you can now drop a volume (or
any drawer) and it will enter slideshow mode even if there are no images in
the target directory. You can then traverse the up and down the drawer
structure as before.

* Calendar: Drag n Drop area. Dropping .lha, .tar, .zip and other compressed
archive formats will bring up the standard Info window instead of attempting
to extract the archive somewhere. Extraction has been disabled for now as it
needs more work and will be re-implemented at a later date.

* Add Event: Removed the text '(required)' which could partially be seen in
the interface connected to the first textfield.

* Add Event: Closing via the Cancel button and quickly moving the mouse could
on occasion cause the program to hang. Fixed.

* Slideshow mode: It is now no longer possible to drag the display away from
the top of the screen.

* Search Window: Those annoying ._ files created by Mac OS X that typically end
up on USB devices are automatically filtered from the results. Also entries
with .Trashes somewhere in their file path are also filtered.

* Search Window: Clicking an Image from the search results will no longer result
in windows being open that shouldn't be.

* Search Window: Clicking a single Image from the search results sends the user
into the Image Editor as before, but no longer in 'batch-mode' which resulted
in unexpected bugs. A crash which sometimes occurred after saving the image
after this process has also been fixed.

* Search Window: Selecting multiple images from the search results sends the
user to the Image Editor as before, but no longer in 'batch-mode' despite the
message to the contrary. The program will select the last image that has been
double clicked. This behaviour maybe reviewed in the future.

* Thanks to Tuxedo, Samo79, Toaks, Thematic, Tekmage and anyone I've missed for
support with reporting bugs, errors and mistakes.

* Updated program credits to include Nikola Tomic who kindly provided the Skins
for the new interface.

* Special thanks to Kas1e for providing inspiration and setting the bar high for
me.



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